EA CEO Wants Players to Spend More on Microtransactions Thanks to AI
Electronic Arts' CEO has outlined a vision for greater use of AI in the company's games. This is expected not only to speed up the development process but also to make players spend more on microtransactions.
Yesterday, the CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, spoke at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. He devoted a large part of his speech to the use of AI in the gaming industry.
Wilson claimed that this technology is extremely thrilling, and Electronic Arts is making a significant investment in integrating it into their business. EA has been using various AI systems for a long time, so it knows well how to implement the latest solutions of this type.
- His statement about the potential of AI to speed up game development was the least unexpected. As Wilson explains, currently the development of the biggest title can take even 6-7 years. EA analyzed its production processes, and it shows that AI can have a positive impact on 60% of these titles.
- As an example, he mentioned sports games. In the past, designing a full-detail stadium could take up to six months. The devs were able to accomplish this in just six weeks by implementing various technological improvements last year. This time could potentially be shortened to six days in the future, partly due to the further development of AI.
- Another example are the company's football games. FIFA 23 has 12 animation cycles responsible for how players run on the pitch (a cycle is a sequence of character poses that together create a given movement). In EA Sports FC 24, there are a total of 1200 of them, all developed by AI.
- Andrew Wilson's goal is to use AI to increase studio productivity by 30% within a few years.
None of the above statements are controversial. Only the next part of the speech stirred up strong emotions. Andrew Wilson believes that with the use of AI, he can expand different aspects of games, such as personalization, in a manner that will result in not just a 50% increase in purchases but also a 10-20% increase in spending on microtransactions by players.
So this is Wilson's plan for the next few years. He aims to boost team productivity by 30%, raise sales by 50%, and elevate the average player spending on microtransactions in EA games by 10-20%, all thanks to AI.
The costs of game development (especially in the AAA segment) are rising so quickly that the implementation of artificial intelligence in the creative process is inevitable. Wilson's plans are not very surprising, especially considering that EA has been implementing various algorithms to accelerate development long before the current AI revolution. However, there's worry about placing excessive focus on using these solutions to obtain higher sums from players through microtransactions.
